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Cambridge Coincidences Collection

Professor David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University wants to know about your coincidences!

i had a freind from primary and i forgot about her and i got on the bus and i sat next to this girl she had the same name , jade ,she had the same bday as me and she was my freinds sister and we are know best freinds again!

Early in my employment career I fell into a post in central London which effectively managed the UK arm of a European Youth Programme. Some 25 years and a completely unrelated spell in local government later, I ended up working for a small charity in a tiny village in S E Cornwall which tapped into the very youth programme I had once managed. A case of gamekeeper turned poacher perhaps and probably why I got the job! One of my first tasks was to meet some of my former colleagues as they disembarked from a ferry onto the beach...

I think this is the only coincidence that's stuck with me - it was about ten years ago, and I was in London for the day, planning to do a few things before meeting up with a friend of mine in the evening to go to a gig. It turned out that my friend had also headed into London a few hours early, and we bumped into each other on (I think) Oxford Street - I saw her crossing the road and called out.

My father, Terry, bought a door from a reclaim centre and fitted it to the 'pub' that he'd built under his house. The lock had no key.
Some friends came round for drinks in the 'pub'.
My father mentioned that he needed to buy a lock for the nice old door he'd just fitted.
One of his friends, John, said that the door looked very similar to one he'd taken to the scrapyard, some weeks ago. "I've got the key on my key ring" he said, handing it over.
It fitted!

In approximately 1989 we had a family gite holiday in France and one day went to the coast and parked on the seafront. At the time we had a cream coloured Montego saloon and upon returning to our car discovered parked next to us was the same model and colour of car. Not only that but it had a British number plate with identical letters and the next number in the sequence. Can't remember now whether it was the one before or the one afterwards.

In my early thirties and married with two young children I often took the dog for a walk over local countryside in West Yorkshire. One winter's day when the snow was fairly deep I slipped down an approach to a stream I often walked over and didn't think much of it at the time. Later on I noticed my expensive Rolex watch was missing and could not find it anywhere. I cannot remember whether it was the next day or two or three days later I did the same walk and again slipped in the snow and as my hand went deep into the snow I felt something. And yes it was my watch.

I was pretty amazed by a strange set of coincidences that happened to me a few months ago...
With children in tow I set off to see my Ma for some lunch out on a Saturday. On the way there (M1 Leicestershire) we passed a new windfarm. I muttered about "not mentioning to Grandma" (as she is an argumentative so and so and does not approve), and a discussion ensued with my daughter (14) about the merits or otherwise of wind farms, and the fact as she saw it that they "have to go somewhere". "Have you heard of the expression Not In My Back Yard, or NIMBY"?

I travel almost every week to another city by airplane to do business. When I get back, I have to drive about 10 km from the airport to my home, passing approx. 20 traffic lights along the way. Normally I have to stop for a minute or so at every second one of them (or so it seems).
A couple of months ago I had the amazing experience of landing one night, and then driving straight home without stopping at a single traffic light.
It seems to me the chance of this occurring must be very small.
Best regards,
Claus Skaaning
PS. Btw.

My Grandfather,his son (my father) and my fathers younger brother were all born on June 16th.I became a father when I was 28 ,my son was born on the 28th, now my son is expecting to become a father at the age of 28,I am waiting to see if the baby will be born on the 28th of whatever month

In 1972 I sold an Austin A40 car to someone who lived near High Wycombe, Bucks. In 1976 I bought a second hand MGB from a dealer in Chalfont St Peter, Bucks. A month later my wife said that she thought that there was something strange about the number plate of the MGB. She looked in the files and found that it was exactly the same number plate, both letters and numbers that was on the A40 sold 4 years previously. Fearing that that there may be something illegal about out 'new' car I obtained details from the DVLA. This is what had happened.